Friday, September 10, 2010

MS: Crankin' out those gestures

It's good to be back:-) In preparation for the middle school field trip on which students will be documenting birds and nature in their journals, they learned how to quickly capture the motion and basic form of different birds looking at photo references. In other words, gesture drawing. It was initially awkward and uncomfortable since students were used to drawing the outline of a form rather than first breaking it down into shapes. I demonstrated how to start with a single curve of the spine depending on the bird's posture, then added circles and ovals for the different body parts using my arm to move the charcoal rather than my wrist. This helps keep the form fluid and not too tight. I timed the students starting at 5 seconds and progressively gave them longer periods.


After multiple sessions of gesture drawings, students drew a more detailed version using paint and colored pencils. I'm excited to see the students' journals when they come back. Really hope these helped!


No comments:

Post a Comment